Now what?
by lostanddistracted
Summary: Ichigo dies and has to start a new adventure with new problems...at the Shinigami Academy.
1. Chapter 1

Since I don't want to be constantly repeating myself, here it is: **Disclaimer:** Tite Kubo owns Bleach, not me.

Hey, this is my first fanfic piece. Read and review please :)

_Italics _are Ichigo's thoughts.

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_Dying fucking sucks._ Ichigo had had a rough day to say the least. After all, he had just died. Officially.

It had been a fire at the school of all things. There had been an explosion in the chemistry lab. Why their teacher had decided it would be a good idea to have high school students experiment with explosive chemicals was beyond him but he had. Ichigo hoped that the idiot professor got fired for killing one of his students. And that lucky student just so happened to be him.

The entire class had heard one of the students curse, quite loudly, before seeing a beaker bubbling viciously. Soon it broke, sending shards of glass across the table it was on and the foam started spreading until it came into contact with something another group had dropped due to the shattering of the beaker. Then all hell broke loose.

The chemicals reacted almost instantly and exploded and sparks flew everywhere and started small fires around them. The alarms started going off and people were running and panicking, trying to get out of the building as fast as they could.

Ichigo had just reached the door when he noticed the teacher laying down unconscious on the floor. He quickly doubled back and picked up the idiot old man and started heading toward the door; all the while cursing the fact that his human body was not as strong as his spiritual one had been. The guy wasn't exactly one to watch his weight.

There was another explosion from the chemistry lab. The shock made Ichigo lose his balance and crash into the side wall and a metal window frame and shards of broken glass. They cut into his neck and the side of his face, causing blood to travel down over his left shoulder and eye. His vision was beginning to blur but he was able to focus until he got himself and the still unconscious teacher into a small unused office. Ichigo leaned his charge against the wall and then slid down next to him. He was becoming delirious and had a hard time keeping his eyes open. The last thing he remembered was hoping that his friends had all gotten out safely.

Amongst the panic outside, Ishida, Chad, and Inoue were running around before eventually finding each other. They hadn't really thought about trying to sense each other's' spiritual pressure, it wouldn't have been productive anyway. There was no way anyone would be able to concentrate in the chaos that had ensued. But they did manage to find each other.

"Inoue-san?" Ishida asked.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"Fine. Chad?" There was merely a nod but it was enough to know he was fine too. Orihime looked around frantically.

"Where's Kurosaki-kun?" They should have noticed that their orange-haired friend wasn't there earlier. Without needing to say anything, the three split up. It wasn't until the crowd had calmed down some that Ishida tried reaching out to sense Ichigo's spiritual pressure, but he couldn't find it. Even after his fight with Aizen where he had lost his spiritual pressure, Ichigo still had this distinct aura that the three could sense, but it was missing. _It couldn't be…_, Ishida refused to believe it, but there was only one explanation he could think of as to why his rival-turned-comrade couldn't be found, that any modicum of his reiatsu had completely disappeared.

Kurosaki Ichigo was dead.

Ishida hurried back to where he had met the other two and noticed that Orihime was close to tears and Chad's fists were clenched. They knew. As he got closer, Ishida could hear her mumbling his name over and over again under her breath.

"Kurosaki-kun. Kurosaki-kun." Each time sounding more strained than the last. He wanted to reach out and comfort her, but that had never really been his strong suit. Ishida was more intellectual type than the emotional. Still, he did mourn their obnoxious friend with the other two even though they knew just where he was going to be.

"Orihime." It was Tastuki. When she saw the Orihime had a couple tears running down her cheeks she ran over and grabbed her friend's shoulders.

"What is it? What happened? Are you okay?" She asked in a rapid fire assault of questions. Orihime merely shook her head and their spikey-haired friend looked at Chad and Ishida as a way of explanation. Ishida looked away and Chad had his eyes on the ground and his shoulders slumped.

"Ichigo died." Mizuiro and Keigo had appeared behind Tatsuki and heard Chad's words just as the slowed down. All three froze, eyes wide and mouths wide.

Ichigo was dead? The same friend of theirs who had stormed into multiple dangerous situations to help them? Who had fought and defeated Aizen and won the Winter War was…dead?

They couldn't believe it. No one could. Ichigo was the strongest of the group. The one they had expected to outlive the rest of them. They all slowly dropped their heads. No one said anything. There were no words they could say.

Orihime flung herself into Tatsuki's arms and started bawling. Keigo fell to the ground with his head in his hands. Mizuiro had dropped his cell phone. And Tatsuki was fighting back tears of her own.

At the emotional display, their homeroom teacher hurried over to the group. Ishida told her that Ichigo was still in the building, but he couldn't tell her he was dead. They would just have to wait until his body was recovered.

The teacher ran over to the nearest fireman after being told one of her students was still in the building. They didn't have to wait very long though, another fireman was already there telling them he had found a student who had died.

School was cancelled. Immediately.

Ichigo had gotten up onto the roof and was watching his friends. Chad, Inoue, Ishida, Tatsuki, Mizuiro, Keigo…each one of them trying to come to grips with the fact that he had just died. _I hope they'll be alright._

"You seem more collected than I would have thought." Rukia appeared behind him with a solemn look on her face.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet." Ichigo fell against the railing. He had been out of his body so many times over the past few years that he was used to the sensation. It also prevented his mind from registering that he wouldn't be returning to his body this time.

Ichigo sighed. He knew what was coming next, but he hadn't been expecting it so soon. _The hell, I just turned eighteen for God's sake!_

Rukia felt for her friend. He had achieved some many impossible things in just a couple years and had finally gotten a normal life, a life that had been taken from his less than a year later. It wasn't fair and she knew it, but she also knew that even if saving his own life would have meant letting that teacher die, Ichigo probably wouldn't have done anything different. It was just the kind of person he was and always had been. A sad smile graced her lips.

"Are you going to say goodbye?" It took a moment for him to answer.

"No."

"What?! Why not?"

"Because," he said standing up, "it won't be the last time we see each other." Even when he hadn't had his shinigami powers, Ichigo still spoke with such conviction that left people without a shred of doubt about what he said. And now dead, he was still the same way and she knew that he wasn't wrong.

Rukia chuckled under her breath. _He will never change._ And she didn't ever want him to.

"Come on. Let's get this over with."

"Ah." Rukia walked over to her friend and gently placed the butt of her zanpaktou against his forehead.

"See you on the other side." Rukia laughed. How he could still joke at a time like this didn't make any sense. _The shock really hasn't caught up with him, huh?_

"Oh, and Rukia," she looked up at her friend's quickly fading form. "Tell my sisters not to worry about me." She only had time to nod before Ichigo disappeared.

When Ichigo opened his eyes he was immediately met by the sun glaring at him. He moaned and covered his eyes but got up anyway. From what he had heard from Rukia and Renji, the Rukongai was a rough place and not one you just wanted to be laying around in. Around him he saw a bunch of food stalls and small shops. The people were dressed in clean yukatas and Ichigo didn't see anyone who looked to be stealing. _Must be one of the higher districts._

He stretched, feeling his bones crack as if he had been sitting for a long time. His hand found the back of his neck as he walked through the streets of whatever district he was in. Eventually he got past all the busy streets and found a small clearing. Ichigo sat down under a large tree and closed his eyes, listening to the laughter of children playing on the other side of the clearing. Soon the laughter died and there was a soft crunch of grass under someone's feet.

"um…excuse me." It was a hesitant voice; a boy who looked to be about ten years old, but Ichigo knew enough soul reapers to know that you can't tell someone's age just by their appearance.

"Ah."

"um, you should probably go home now, it's getting dark."

"Why does it matter?"

"Well…because monsters sometimes come and attack people."

"Yeah," another voice piped up. It was a small girl with wavy brown hair who had been hiding behind the boy. "They're really strong. Only the people in black can beat them."

_Monsters? People in black?_ Then it dawned on him. The two kids were talking about hollows and shinigami. Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle under his breath. It was all backwards. Ichigo had always been the one to protect others while he was alive and now these two little kids were trying to do the same to him. _They're warning me about Hollows? Oh, the irony._

"Alright, alright I'll go," Ichigo sighed and got up. "But first I'm going to make sure you two get home safe."

The boy gawked. "We can get home by ourselves!" He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. The girl just straightened and put on a serious face. Ichigo narrowed his eyes and smirked.

"Humor me." With that, the trio took off. As they walked, the girl lost her serious expression and seemed to be more at ease around him. She had introduced herself as Maiha and the boy as Kairi. Ichigo introduced himself and not long after, Maiha came up and took his hand. It caught him by surprise but he held on anyways. The girl reminded him of what Yuzu was like when she was younger.

The two started talking, well it was more listening on Ichigo's part, as they got closer to Maiha and Karir's home. Kairi had fallen a few steps back and stood staring at the two holding hands. Ichigo caught glimpses of the boy from time to time, but didn't stare. He had a feeling that Kairi wouldn't have liked to have been caught looking.

"Onii-chan!" Maiha took off towards the small house and Kairi soon followed. Ichigo turned and began walking away, knowing that they were somewhere safe.

"Wait!" A tall, lanky black-haired man stumbled out of the small house. He latched onto one of Ichigo's arms and caught his breath. He looked up at him before continuing.

"You're the one who brought Maiha and Kairi back aren't you?" The man pulled Ichigo into the house without waiting for an answer. "Please, sit." Ichigo did so and looked around. The house, though small, seemed to be bustling with life. He spotted Kairi and Maiha in the corner with a couple other kids and a puppy barking at their feet.

"Sorry about the noise." The lanky man from before came up and offered Ichigo a cup of tea. "I'm Choukichi by the way."

"Kurosaki Ichigo." After that the two started talking and Ichigo found out that he was in the 42nd district in south Rukongai. It was also how he found out about the shinigami academy entrance exams. There were a couple of kids who overheard their conversation and hurried over. Maiha was one of them and collapsed right next to Ichigo.

"Ne, Onii-chan. Are you telling Ichigo-nii san about the people in black?" Maiha said excitedly. These 'people in black' as she called them seemed to be one of her favorite topics.

"Yeah. I was just telling Kurosaki-san about the shinigami academy." He looked back at Ichigo. "Are you going to apply?" Choukichi, Maiha, Kairi, and the other kids all looked at Ichigo, who became very aware of the sudden attention he was getting.

"Ah." He confirmed. "So, when are the exams?" Those around him smiled and Ichigo couldn't help but give a small smile back. Choukichi went on to explain about what the testing was like. Ichigo couldn't help but wonder how he knew so much unless he applied himself, but every time he brought it up, Choukichi simply waved it off as something he had overheard.

Ichigo was so wrapped up in their conversation that it took Choukichi nearly shoving his face out the door for him to realize that the sun had set. Choukichi got the kids settled down before joining Ichigo outside.

"Are you really going to apply?" There was a hint of sadness creeping into Choukichi's voice that hadn't been there the last time he had asked.

"Yeah. It's just something I have to do." Ichigo said, looking up at the night sky.

"Have to or want to?" Speaking with such heavy tone caught Ichigo off guard. Until now, Choukichi had been speaking light-heartedly, but now the man's voice was grave.

"Don't go looking for recognition or praise or to take a shot at playing hero. There are other ways help people and keep them safe." Ichigo stared at Choukichi who seemed to have aged thirty years from when they first met.

"You tried to become a shinigami." It wasn't a question. Choukichi dropped his head and nodded.

"I made a mistake and paid for it dearly." He stole a brief look at Ichigo. "They like you, you know."

"Who?"

"The children. I've never seen them so comfortable around someone they just met. I mean, it took me two weeks to get them to trust me enough to take care of them." Ichigo sighed and looked up at the sky, noticing how few stars there were.

"They probably opened up since learning to trust you." Choukichi shook his head.

"No. Trust me, that's not it. I've taken them with me before and they still don't talk to people. I think, I think it's you." He looked at Ichigo who by know was quite confused.

"You care." Ichigo's eyes widened slightly and Choukichi shook his head. "I saw how you acted inside. You seemed to watch them protectively from the corner of your eye, apparently unconsciously." Choukichi grabbed his arm and forced Ichigo to look at him. "Don't make my mistake. You don't have to be a war hero to protect those around you. Please."

Ichigo nodded but knew that Choukichi knew it was a lost cause. "I can protect my friends better as a shinigami than I can as I am now. I am going to enter the academy and I am going to get stronger. Strong enough to protect everyone that I care about."

Choukichi saw the determination in the younger man's eyes and sighed. He wasn't going to get through the boy's head but he wasn't saddened by it. Ichigo had this energy about him that made Choukichi believe that the orange-head would stick to his word and would become just as strong as he said he would. And Choukichi prayed that he wouldn't be disappointed.


	2. Chapter 2

****Ok, so I am going to try to stay true to how Tite Kubo wrote the characters, at least for the moment, but I'm sure some things will be different. After all I am not Tite Kubo.

I do apologize for not jumping right into the main action, but I figure there needs to be some actual story instead of just one fight scene after another.

Anyway, please comment and if possible, send some ideas for OCs for when Ichigo gets to the academy. Thanks. Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 2**

Ichigo had one month to pass before the entrance exam and without any money, he would either have to steal or find a job to get anything to eat. He wasn't one to steal but finding a job was seemingly more difficult than he had originally thought it would be. One night, though, he finally got lucky.

There were quite a few bars in the 42nd district and Ichigo was just walking by one when he heard tables being flipped and lots of yelling. It wasn't very often that sort of thing to happen in the district. Most of the people were more civilized than that. _Probably some guys from the higher districts. Wonder what they're doing here?_ Ichigo walked in, figuring he might as well see what was going on.

As he expected, tables were overturned, people were scared and backed up against the wall, and there were two very angry, very drunk guys standing in the middle of the room staring each other down. The older bar owner was trying to calm the men down.

"Back the fuck off, 'r I'll fucking kill ya, old man." One of the men growled. The small bar owner backed away nervously and cast worried glances around the room. Finally Ichigo stepped in, just before the first punch was about to be thrown.

"Oi." His eyes once again held their usual glare. The entire room turned to face him; most in shock, wondering why someone significantly less muscular than the pair would be interrupting. "You're making a scene."

"Oh yeah," it was the second man this time. "What're you gonna do 'bout it?" Ichigo didn't even bother with an answer. Instead he stepped up and punched the guy. The room was silent. No one could believe the boy just did that. The man, however, quickly recovered.

"Bastard! You think y'r gonna get away with tha'!" He charged, pulling back his arm and yelling. Ichigo dodged and delivered a couple strong, quick punches the man's stomach and side. He instantly fell to the ground. The other man, who probably would have backed off had he been sober, ran towards Ichigo. He spun away from the man's clumsy attack and punched his side. Wobbling, the man continued attacking, each shot clumsier as the last. Finally Ichigo landed an uppercut that caused the man's already drunken brain to connect with his skull. He fell to the ground and stayed there. Five minutes later the men were lying on the ground outside the bar.

"Th-thank you." It was the small bar owner Ichigo had seen earlier.

"Don't mention it."

"Is there anything I can get for you?" Ichigo was confused. He hadn't stepped in to the fight to get anything from the owner. The black-haired man shook his head.

"Let me get you something to eat. It's the least I can do."

Uh…thanks." It wasn't intelligent, but it was the best he could come up with at the time. Ichigo sat down and the man, true to his word, brought some food out for him and didn't ask for any sort of payment. Ichigo gave him a brief half-smile as a growl came from his stomach at the sight of food. Ichigo's face turned a bright shade of red. He hadn't eaten since he left Choukichi's a week ago but he was glad to know that he was that hungry. It meant his spiritual pressure was coming back. It wasn't even a fraction of what it used to be, but the familiar feeling was a welcome addition since his death.

After finishing the food, Ichigo asked the owner, whom had recovered from the fright earlier, if he could stick around and help out. The man agreed and the two decided on an arrangement where Ichigo would help with whatever manual labor had to be done and take care of the occasional bar fight should one occur, while the man provided him with one meal every day.

The weeks went by this way, Ichigo helping the owner during the day and at night he went out and trained. Since he had lost his shinigami powers after the war, when he died, he became just a regular soul. Of course, that meant that even though he had been trained by Urahara, Yoruichi, and Zangetsu while trying to save Rukia and prepare for the Winter War, his body was still the same as it was when he was human. Now, Ichigo was in no way out of shape as a human, but it definitely wasn't the kind of shape he had been in while he was a shinigami. So he trained.

Ichigo began his training soon after the bar incident. He didn't have a sword, or an opponent to fight, so most of the time was spent conditioning and running. After the first couple days, Ichigo was sure he had seen every inch of the district from when he ran. For the other training he frequently found himself in the same clearing where he had met Maiha and Kairi. He spotted them a couple times, but for the most part Ichigo didn't pay much attention to his surroundings.

It had been about a month since his arrival which meant that there were only a few days until the entrance exams. Ichigo was lying in the grass after finishing his usual training regimen. He had been able to build up some muscle in the short amount of time, but hadn't had much luck with the combat part of his training. _People were always itching for a fight when I was alive and now that I'm dead and actually want a fight, no one's around. Figures._ Ichigo just shook his head; something like that would happen to him. It just meant that he had some ground to make up when he got to the academy. There was a soft rustling in the grass beside him.

"um…Ichigo-nii san." He immediately recognized the voice of Mariha. Ichigo sat up and looked at the little girl who was having trouble meeting his eyes. "Are you really going to leave?"

Ichigo's expression softened slightly at the sadness in the girl's tone. Choukichi was right; she really had gotten kind of attached to him.

"Yeah," he watched as her shoulders slumped. "But I'll be back." Mariha's head shot up and her eyes widened. A ghost of a smile made its way across her face.

"You promise?" Ichigo nodded and the girl jumped and threw her arms around his neck, effectively startling the redhead. He chuckled, _she really is just like Yuzu._ After letting go, Ichigo watched as the little girl raced over to where an unseen Kairi had been hiding. He had warmed up to Ichigo a little bit, but was still the more distant of the two. When Mariha met up with him, the two took off back to Choukichi's, no doubt tell the rest that he would be coming back at some point.

Ichigo laid back down in the grass and put his hands behind his head. There were three days until the exams and he figured he could probably make it to the first district in less than two. Since he had the rest of the night to spend before taking off the next morning, Ichigo figured he would go back to the old man's bar and get something to eat.

The bar owner knew that Ichigo was going to apply for the academy. He had asked the first day Ichigo had come back from his training covered in sweat and immediately told him to go take a bath. Ichigo had complied, for he wanted one too, and the owner started preparing the meal the boy would undoubtedly need. The old man had grown fond of the young redhead and would be sad to see him go. Ichigo had a strong heart and wasn't one to take freebies or handouts. The owner had tried on multiple occasions to give the boy extra little things, another meal or a room for the night, but was always turned down. Ichigo always told him that he was being generous enough already. But this time it would be different. Ichigo was going to take his gift whether he wanted to or not.

"Oya-jii?" the bar owner met Ichigo in a spare room of his house. Seeing the old man wasn't unusual, he had started talking to him more often as the entrance exams drew near. What did surprise him was that the man was holding a large box. Ichigo had told him time-and-time again that he didn't need the owner to get him anything but by the look on the man's face Ichigo wasn't going to win this battle, so he reluctantly took the box from the old man.

"What is it?"

"Open it and find out." Ichigo did as he said and when he saw what was inside, he didn't know what to say. "I figured you could use a new one. That old one had been completely drenched in sweat, even if it has been washed."

Inside the box was a new yukata. It was a deep red and had a black geometric design on it. The old bar owner was secretly thrilled that he had been able to surprise the boy. Though there were varying degrees of Ichigo's near-constant scowl, the wide-eyed speechlessness was a nice change. Ichigo stuttered a couple times before finally being able to get out his thanks. The old man smiled.

"Now get some sleep. You've got a long day of traveling tomorrow." Ichigo nodded and thanked the old man once again before lying down for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, finally some action in a chapter.

So read, review and enjoy :)

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**Chapter 3**

Ichigo had woken up earlier, said his goodbyes, and was now headed towards the first district. As he walked his mind wandered. The people in the 42nd district hadn't heard much detail about the Winter War; only that it was devastating and there had been a group of humans helping the shinigami. There were no rumors about the orange-haired war hero or the giant zanpaktou that was always strapped to his back. Now, Ichigo was just a normal soul, well semi-normal. He could only hope that the academy was the same way.

Ichigo stopped and sighed heavily. He had been trying to keep his new yukata in good shape, but at the rate he was going it would take him the entire two days to even get to the first district. So after a muffled apology that the old man wouldn't hear, Ichigo started running through the districts. He flew over the pavement and by the end of the day was somewhere in the 12th. If he had gotten through thirty districts in one day, then that meant he would probably be at the academy by about noon tomorrow. With that thought, he a quiet spot and went to sleep.

The sun woke him early the next morning. He groaned, got up and stretched. As his bones popped he made a mental note not to sleep like that again. There was some bustling about as Ichigo walked through the city. From the conversations he overheard, many people were traveling today to take the entrance exam for the shinigami academy. Ichigo had never been able to figure out how to navigate Seireitei seeing as whoever designed the place seemed to try to deliberately get people lost, so he made his way through the crowd, following the long line of people.

After much pushing and shoving on everyone's part, Ichigo finally arrived at the academy. It wasn't too far from what he had expected it to look like; tall white walls dotted with windows and a gold, traditional slanted roof. _Just like pretty much everything else in Seireitei._ He walked in through the large gate and couldn't believe his eyes. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people there. Some looked younger than his sisters but most of them were, or at least appeared to be, around his age. Look at Rukia, she looked about high-school-aged but in human years was an old lady. Ichigo laughed at the thought. Rukia would beat him if she ever found out.

Still chuckling, Ichigo made his way towards the front of the school where a row of tables were set up. The three people behind the tables were taking applications. Once he had one filled out, Ichigo handed it to one of them and was handed a number: 1402. There was a voice off in the distance calling for 680-something. _Great, now just a lot of sitting around. Well, might as well get comfortable._

He sat down under a tree away from the large, noisy crowd. Again he was glad for the lack of information that had gotten out about the war. With any luck, Ichigo could get through the academy without any misfires. It probably wouldn't happen that way, but he was going to see how long his obscurity could last. Ichigo looked at the crowd of hopefuls wondering if he should introduce himself to some of them, but decided that he would rather just sit back and relax before his exam.

"939" a voice droned. There was a soft thud to his left and Ichigo opened his eye to look at the new comer. It was a small girl, who, from the looks of it, was incredibly nervous about the exam.

"You worried?" The girl turned to look at him. She had been sure that the boy was asleep. Looking away, she nodded. "Don't be. They're testing for skill. Keep your focus and you'll probably be fine." The stranger ran his hand through his hair before leaning back against the tree and closing his eyes.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." She kind of liked this boy. He didn't sound arrogant and had given her advice and encouragement without hesitation.

"I'm Anami Kida, by the way."

"Kurosaki Ichigo. Nice to meet you." He had looked back over at her and Kida noticed his eyes. Though he wasn't smiling and didn't seem to want to mingle with the other examinees, his brown eyes gave of such a strong warmth that she…Kida blushed and shook off the thought. She had just met Ichigo and was already staring into his beautiful brown…_Stop it!_ Kida needed to get her thoughts in check. She had never had much experience with men and what little experience she did have hadn't been good, but for some reason, Kida felt she could trust the boy sitting next to her. _Hopefully I'm not wrong this time._

After another hour of waiting, Ichigo's number was finally called. He got up and looked back at Kida who ha wished him good luck. Then he walked up the man at the front of the school.

"1402?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo." He scowled, like hell was he going to let the man call him by a number. The man twitched but let the remark slide as he turned and led Ichigo to the examination room. It was a large open room with three people standing along one wall. A fourth walked up to Ichigo and the man he had followed retreated out of the room.

"Hello, I am Kitotsu Teru. I'll be your proctor for zanjutsu, hakuda, and hoho. And you are?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo." The young black-haired shinigami nodded and Ichigo saw the three behind him had clip boards, ready to take notes.

"Ok." Teru grabbed Ichigo's attention. "We are going to go ahead and start off with hoho. You will have ten minutes to try and land five hits on me." Ichigo nodded and the chase started.

Teru was ready for the boy's first attack and dodged easily but was not ready for the quick counter. The boy had managed to touch him on the second attempt! Teru started moving a little faster as Ichigo increased his own speed. Ichigo wasn't using shunpo but he was still much faster than the other applicants Teru has seen. Another minute had passed and the boy had landed an additional three hits. Wanting to see just how fast the boy could go, Teru started throwing in a flash-step here and there. What he saw surprised him; Ichigo wasn't having any trouble following his movements at all and though he might not have had the same the speed to match the shinigami, it was still pretty incredible. Unfortunately, Teru's momentary amazement at the boy's skill was all the time Ichigo needed.

"Gotcha." Ichigo was right behind Teru who was hit for the fifth time, effectively ending the test. Pens scratched across paper as the other three shinigami were furiously writing down notes. The redhead threw a look in their direction.

"Do you need a break?" Teru asked and when Ichigo shook his head, he continued.

"Then on to hakuda." He waited for Ichigo to get ready and then charged. The punch wasn't real fast and the redhead had plenty of time to block and roll out of the way. _This guy's not going all out. Humph. Not surprising._ Ichigo had really been looking for a good opponent and now that he had one, the guy was hardly trying. _We're just going to have to fix that._ He attacked.

Teru blocked a punch from Ichigo's left but ended up taking one from his right. He rubbed his side. The kid's punch fucking hurt. Teru felt a snake its way onto his face. This fight could actually be rather entertaining, or at least better than the rest had been. The two started fighting again, harder than they had been before. Punches and kicks were being thrown from both sides, but finally Ichigo managed to get a solid kick into Teru's stomach which forced the man to take a couple steps back.

As Ichigo was preparing for the final blow, the man held up his arms, stopping the fight, and looked over at the other three who nodded and wrote down more notes. Again he asked Ichigo if he needed a break and once again the answer was no. Ichigo wasn't tired; rather he was happy with the workout. For the last month he had mostly only been able to build muscle and endurance, but now it was combat, kind of. While this him feel better, it still wasn't what he was used to; even if he hadn't been a shinigami for half a year.

Teru grabbed a sword from the side wall and then walked over to Ichigo. "Ok, now we're doing zanjutsu. Ever fought with a sword before?" There was slight anticipation in his eyes. Teru was hoping that the boy had some experience; he didn't want to be disappointed after Ichigo's impressive hakuda display.

"Only a little," _training anyway, but more fights than you could even imagine, _Ichigo nodded, finishing his sentence to himself.

"Great. Go ahead and pick out a nameless zanpaktou for the test." Ichigo walked over to the row of zanpaktous and couldn't find one close to the length of Zangetsu.

"Hey, do you have anything longer?" The proctors were surprised by the boy's question, and by his lack of manners while asking. He hadn't turned around to look at them but was still examining the nameless zanpaktous. Teru looked back at the three, hoping for an answer. None of the other applicant's had asked about getting a different sword. One of the three finally spoke up.

"No. Choose one of the ones in front of you." Ichigo's insolence irked the old man more than it did the others. He probably would have agreed to Ichigo using a slightly longer blade had the boy asked politely and with respect, but now there was no way he was going to comply with the brat's brazen question.

The other three looked questioningly at the old man, Mitotsu Henke. It took a lot to irritate the old man. He had dealt with a good number of problematic students and here Ichigo had managed to do it with only one sentence. Teru had to give the kid props; he had guts, that's for sure.

Scowling at the old man, Ichigo went back to looking at the blades and after a minute of searching, finally found one he thought might be usable. It was only about four feet long, but it was the longest one there. He swung it by his side a couple times to get used to weight of the blade before holding it up to his face. The relative shortness of it was going to mess him up for sure. He sighed. _Hurry back, Zangetsu._

He sighed and walked back over to face Teru. "Ok, I'm ready." There was a moment's pause and then both jumped forward. Their swords clashed loudly against one another in a power struggle. Ichigo pushed away from him and lifted his sword for a downward swing. With the shorter sword however, it was the top of his blade that met Teru's. _Damnit._ Teru had easily pushed away that strike. Ichigo was going to have a harder time fighting than he thought. He charged forward again, making sure to take an extra step to lower the contact point of his new blade.

Teru watched Ichigo. His initial strike had seemed as if he had misjudged the distance between them, but by the next, he had corrected it and was now fighting fairly naturally. _Once or twice my ass._ Ichigo definitely had more fighting experience than that. And not only that, he was still fast. He was keeping up the speed he had shown in the hoho test during this one. Most of the others had been much slower since they were focused more on the wild strikes they were throwing than an actual strategy, not that they were expected to know any. More clangs of their blades meeting before Teru finally found an opening and slid his zanpaktou up to Ichigo's neck, but at the expense of taking a slice in his arm. A small river of blood started trailing down the shinigami's arm and he started laughing. Ichigo was taken aback but before he could ask Teru opened his eyes.

"You're really good kind. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a seated position once getting out of here." Teru watched as Ichigo walked back to put the nameless zanpaktou back against the wall. _Yeah, this kid is definitely going places._

A young woman soon took Teru's place for the kido test. She didn't bother to introduce herself; apparently Ichigo's now cheerful combat proctor was the only one who bothered with pleasantries. She explained that he would be performing Bakudo #1: Sai. Ichigo was familiar with the spell; it was the only Rukia had used on him when they first met. Ichigo raised his hands at her and took a deep breath. _Hope I don't blow anything up._

"Bakudo #1: Sai." The woman's body tensed, but that was it. Ichigo, while relieved at the lack of an explosion, was mad that, that was all he had been able to do. It only served to remind him that he was still very far from how he used to be.

"Good. If you will follow me, now all that's left is to measure your spiritual pressure." She brought him over to a table where a small tablet was placed. "Put your hand here." There was a beep and she wrote something down on her clipboard. "Thank you and welcome to the academy." Ichigo nodded and walked out the door on the opposite side of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Train of thought kept running so here is another chapter, only a couple of days later. Whoo-hoo. Anyway, I know that there might be a few questions regarding Ichigo's exam. Bare in mind that I am writing this after the Winter War and before Ichigo's encounter with Ginjo.

aka - when he was normal

Now on with the chapter and as always...

Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

**Chapter 4**

While there were thousands of people outside, there were at least a couple hundred more inside. Ichigo wasn't sure if they had all made it in, but if even half made it in the class would still be huge. Ichigo groaned. He sat down at an empty table in the corner and closed his eyes, once again trying to block out the noise. Just as he was able to relax an annoyance popped up in the form of an irritated black-haired boy.

"You're in my spot." _Really? What is this kindergarten? _Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"And?" The boy crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed.

"That means move." Two of the guys beside him scoffed, looking down at him, in more ways than one. When the redhead didn't move, the obvious leader of the group grew more and more annoyed. People always did what he said if they knew what was good for them.

"Do you have any idea who I am? I am Sengoku Segashi." When Ichigo still didn't move his eyes widened. Who didn't know of the Sengoku clan? They were one of the noble families of Seriertei, for God's sake! While Segashi was about ready to scream at Ichigo, a fourth person walked up and joined the group. The new addition was rather short compared to the others and stood out as the only as he was the only one that didn't have black hair; his was more of a sand-blond and, unlike the gelled-back style of the other three, his curled out to frame his face.

Naito Hundero, or Hunter, looked at the boy brave enough to take Segashi's spot. He didn't appear to be overly muscled, but would not be someone that could be considered weak. Bright orange hair and light brown eyes adorned his scowling face. Overall the stranger would probably be considered handsome in the eyes of many of the girls in the academy, for he had no doubt that the boy got in.

The blonde's presence went unnoticed by the others who were continuing their staring match with Ichigo. Suddenly there was a tugging on his sleeve. He turned to see a scared looking Kida who quickly turned to face Segashi.

"I'm so sorry for my friend's disrespect. Please forgive him, Sengoku-sama." She gave a deep bow before yanking Ichigo out of his seat and away from the table.

"Humph. That's more like it." The four sat down, but Hunter couldn't help but look back at where the redhead had been pulled off to. He seemed interesting and the blonde decided he would have to keep an eye on him.

As she pulled him away, Kida started to berate him. How could he stand up to a _Sengoku?_, didn't he have any idea what the noble could do to him?, he could make his life miserable, and prevent him from ever getting a seated position were just a few of the things tumbling out of her. Ichigo had no idea she could even talk that much and eventually started tuning her out.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" When she noticed that she had gotten many people's attention, Kida looked down and blushed. Ichigo huffed and walked around her.

"I don't really care about what he could do to me. I've dealt with worse." Kida doubted it. The Sengokus were a family with a lot of power and influence in Soul Society. They had done things like that before and could probably do it again. _Please be careful, Ichigo. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into._ She hurried after him once she noticed he had walked away. One of the men who had been calling people earlier for the tests came into the large room. He apparently had some of their schedules.

"Giachi, Moriko, Naito, Minami," the man looked right up at Ichigo with an evil glint in his eye. "1402." Ichigo glared at him, while everyone else in the room was wondering why he had called a number. The five of them went up and grabbed their schedules. Hundero watched as the redhead from earlier picked his up and glared at the man. "Welcome to the academy, 1402." The boy looked like he was about to punch the other man but ended up just stomping away from him. Watching as the figure retreated with the timid girl behind him, he quirked an eyebrow. Yes, this boy was definitely one to watch out for.

Ichigo sat down against a wall, not even bothering to look at the paper in his hands. Kida on the other hand was staring intently at hers. She was glad to have made it in, but was nervous about all the lessons and practicals.

Minami Kida: Regular Class, Year 1

Reiatsu Level: 2

Dorm 2, Room Number 436

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

8:00-9:30 – Hakuda Theory

9:30-11:30 – Hakuda Practical

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

1:00-2:30 – Kido Theory

2:30-4:30 – Kido Practical

5:00-6:00 – Fitness Training

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

8:00-9:30 – Zanjutsu Theory

9:30-11-30 – Zanjutsu Practical

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

1:00-2:30 – Hoho Theory

2:30-4:30 – Hoho Practical

5:00-6:00 – Fitness Training

_Students must attend at least three fitness training sessions a week._

Ugh, as if two hour practicals weren't enough they had to do additional conditioning as well. The only upside was that they would all soon be in really good shape. When Kida noticed that Ichigo still hadn't even looked at his schedule she just sighed.

"What's your schedule like?" Ichigo was shook out of his thoughts by Kida's question and finally opened his schedule. Kida sat down so that she could look at it over his shoulder.

Kurosaki Ichigo: Advanced Class, Year 1

Reiatsu Level: 4

Dorm 1, Room 215

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

8:00-9:30 – Hoho Theory

9:30-11:30 – Hoho Practical

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

1:00-2:30 – Hakuda Theory

2:30-4:30 – Hakuda Practical

5:00-6:00 – Fitness Training

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

8:00-9:30 – Kido Theory

9:30-11-30 – Kido Practical

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

1:00-2:30 – Zanjutsu Theory

2:30-4:30 – Zanjutsu Practical

5:00-6:00 – Fitness Training

_Students must attend at least three fitness training sessions a week._

Ichigo looked over his results; however, he was having a hard time getting past the low reiatsu level. The fact that it was taking so long for his reiatsu to return to normal irked him to no end. But this only motivated him to work harder. To train so that he was even stronger than he was before.

Soon after they had been handed their schedules, the number-calling bastard came back in. He announced that everyone in the room had passed their exams and that they were to go find their rooms.

"Classes will start tomorrow. Welcome to the Shinigami Academy."


	5. Chapter 5

Finally another chapter. I apologize for taking so long. With finals coming up and Thanksgiving break with the family not long ago, I haven't had much time to write. So here it is. I hope you like it and as always: Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 5**

"Welcome and congratulations on getting into the advanced class. I am Gengoro Onabara. I expect hard work from everyone in this class. You will be pushed harder than the rest. You are going to have tougher practicals, more in depth theory. You are going to…" Ichigo started tuning him out. Figured it wasn't much different than any other 'welcome to this class' speech that every teacher gives on the first day. He had gotten enough of that while he was alive. Instead he started looking around the room.

There were about one hundred students in the room. He recognized that Segashi and the blonde were there, but he didn't see the goons. _A noble with friends in the regular class? Didn't think that would ever happen._ Besides those two, Ichigo saw people of every shape and size: fat, skinny, tall, short, and all young – supposedly. There were a couple of people who really stood out. One was a girl who looked a little older than him. She had long light brown hair and was surrounded by guys that seemed to be devoted followers. Why he wasn't sure, but he figured it was probably because of her looks; she reminded Ichigo of Matsumoto, he just hoped she wasn't as loud. There was also a young boy, like really young, sitting three rows ahead of him. The boy had short, spiky reddish-brown hair and, Ichigo guessed, was even shorter than Rukia.

"…Now, head to your classes." Gengoro said and watched as the students filed out of the doors. He had noticed that Ichigo had stopped listening and was instead looking around the room. It irritated him, but even he hated the beginning of the year speech, so he couldn't really blame the boy. He simply watched the redhead leave in the herd of new students.

Ichigo was practically pushed out of the room. At one point someone elbowed him in the back and he would have turned if he could, but since that was definitely out of the question, he just finished pushing his way through the students until he could get into the hallway. After a walking for a while and taking a few wrong turns, Ichigo finally made it to the hoho theory room. It was basically a smaller version of the auditorium style room they had first been in. Maybe half the seats were taken and Ichigo made his way to an open one.

From the looks of it, he wasn't the only one that had gotten lost. It had taken another ten minutes for the rest of the class to file in. One of the last few claimed the seat next to him, but didn't even bother to look in his direction. While it annoyed him, Ichigo didn't mind the silence that came with it. He did however notice that the tiny kid from before was in this class.

"Alright class," the teacher chimed, "I am Nakamura Rei and I'll be your hoho teacher this year." She immediately started in on the lecture, completely skipping the 'welcome' speech which Ichigo was thankful for. It was a basic history mostly but finally got to a simple shunpo technique. After the brief explanation they walked to a much larger and more open space.

"Now I want you to practice what I explained." She gave a wave of her hand and the students one-by-one started attempting the flash-step. It was comical. Nearly half the class either tripped or fell and the rest had either been too hesitant to try yet or had small success, only managing to go short distances barely above running speed. He finally decided that he should practice.

The first couple Ichigo did weren't much faster than the others' but were much more stable. Then he started getting faster. He knew he could do even better but his lack of spiritual pressure was a hindrance once again, but he was still moving fast enough to challenge the other students to try and follow his movements. Ichigo noticed but disregarded the fact that some of the students had turned to try and watch him. He had, on-the-other-hand, noticed that the tiny copper he saw earlier was doing fairly well. His steps were still a little shaky but he could connect two or three together without having to completely stop. _I should figure out who this kid is._

The practical was shorter than Ichigo thought it was going to be, but it was probably only because the introduction speech had cut into the class time. The group headed off to lunch where he was sure would only be more gross cafeteria food waiting for them. He followed everyone else and saw Kida, whom had already gotten food.

Kida waved him over and her friend's eyes bulged. The brunette was friends with him? He didn't seem like someone the shy girl would get along with. Ichigo arrived at their corner table and Kida introduced him.

"Meg, this is Kurosaki Ichigo. Ichigo-san, this is Titanou Meg."

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Same." Meg said. She was surprised that he was not as off-putting as he looked. Though his scowl left much to be desired. Ichigo went up to grab some food and as he did, Meg noticed that there was a tiny boy following him around. She had to keep herself from laughing, but it was pretty cute. Every time the redhead would turn around the boy would quickly hide behind someone or something.

"Did you know you have a shadow?" She asked as Ichigo sat down.

"A what?"

Meg laughed, _apparently not._ "There's been a small boy following you around since you came in." She pointed over his shoulder and Ichigo turned just in time to see a streak of copper-colored hair dashing behind someone. He chuckled; it was the same boy he had noticed during his hoho class. Ichigo shook his head at his food.

"I was wondering who that kid was. Seems like now might be a good time to find out." Ichigo stood up and walked to the far side of the room and his shadow followed. He turned a corner and stopped. When the small boy peered around he saw Ichigo standing right in front of him. The boy started sprinting away but Ichigo caught the back of his uniform.

"Oh no you don't." Ao turned to look up at the scowling redhead. He had to be two feet taller than him. The older boy scared him but he couldn't help but watch him. During their hoho class he had been amazing; he had learned the steps so quickly and could do it so easily. It made the younger boy a little envious but he had wanted to keep watching the redhead; hoping he could learn from him. But he had never expected to actually talk to him.

Ichigo could see that the smaller boy was scared of him. "Who are you?"

"Ao." The boy's reply was hesitant. Ichigo released the boy and introduced himself as well. Ao looked up at him, some of the fright gone from his eyes, but he was obviously still a little scared at being caught. Ichigo walked past him, back towards the cafeteria before turning to look back at him.

"You coming?" Ao's head snapped up to look at the redhead. The small boy nodded and smiled before hurrying after him. The two came back into the room and Meg had to try even harder to keep herself from laughing. Where earlier the little boy had been the redhead's shadow, now he was more like a puppy. He was smiling and walking fast, trying to keep up with Ichigo's long strides. It was truly comical, but Meg didn't get to enjoy the scene for long. Soon enough the two had reached the table and Kida asked about the hoho class. She and Meg listened closely to what Ao said, seeing as Ichigo had been rather uninformative – replying with a simple 'it was ok'. From what the puppy said Ichigo had done much better than 'ok', and had picked up the flash-step faster than anyone.

Ichigo could feel the two looking at him but didn't meet their eyes and just glared down at what was left of his food. When it was finally time for their next class, Ichigo quickly got up and walked out the door; leaving a sad and rather abandoned looking puppy dog behind.

"Hey, Ao. What class do you have next?" Kida asked hoping to cheer up the little boy as the three of them headed towards their own classrooms.

"Zanjutsu." He said quietly. The brunette really felt for the boy; it hadn't been his fault that the redhead left without them. If anything it was her and Meg's fault for trying to get him to talk about the hoho practical. She sighed.

"Don't worry, Ao. It's not you he's annoyed at. Heck it's probably Meg." Kida then looked over at her shocked friend. "Well you shouldn't have bothered him so much."

"I just wanted to know if what the pup – Ao – said was true!" Their black-and-blue haired friend defended. Kida smiled slightly, she was just giving Meg a hard time and trying to cheer the little boy up and Meg knew that. When she looked back over at Kida, she could practically see the light bulb clicking on above the girl's head.

"Hey Ao. I'm pretty sure that Ichigo has hakuda right now. You could probably meet up with him after class and go to the training session together. We'll even meet you there."

"We will?" Kida shot a pointed stare at her friend whom she had just dragged into training. "I mean, of course we will." A small smile appeared on Ao's face; he wasn't back up to perking puppy dog status yet, but it was an improvement. With that, the three separated, each heading off to their different classes.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello again. Sorry for the rather long break. I hope this chapter makes up for it. If anyone has any ideas for OCs please let me know. I don't want to start repeating some characteristics so that they become too similar. Thanks and as always:

Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 6**

Ichigo just stared ahead as the hakuda instructor droned on about outdated fighting styles. Only when there was about half-an-hour left did he actually say something useful. Well, to most students it was useful, as far as Ichigo was concerned, it was common knowledge: always keep your guard up and never underestimate your opponent. With that he introduced the proper form for hand-to-hand fighting and then it was time for the practical.

"Alright class, now I want you to practice what I told you in class. Make sure to focus more on form than power. If you have good form, power will come easily later, but if you go for power first, you will only end up hurting yourself more than your opponent." The students quickly paired off and not unexpectedly, Ichigo was left the odd man out. _Yes, now I get to fight – _Ichigo heard a hesitant voice behind him and turned. Standing there was a tall, lanky boy who looked and acted like he'd had an eight inch growth spurt overnight. He didn't seem used to his height at all. Ichigo sighed; turned out he wouldn't be fighting the instructor after all.

The boy stood awkwardly with hands raised in front of him. Ichigo knew that it was the typical defensive position, but on the lanky guy it just looked weird. The redhead got the impression that if he were to put big black-framed glasses on him, the boy would look like a nerd trying to stand up to the bully; he even had the uncertain what-am-I-doing look on his face. Ichigo sighed. If this was how the entire practical was going to be, it was going to be a very long two hours.

Ichigo raised his arm to block another one of the other's weak punches before returning it with one of his own. He had to hold back on every punch; the boy looked like he might snap in half if hit too hard. Thankfully about an hour in the mono-toned teacher called for their attention and showed them an additional attack and how to connect them. Finally they were starting to get somewhere; although if Ichigo was stuck with the same teen for the rest of the class, he wasn't going to get any decent practice in at all. The instructor left the students to work on creating combo attacks for a while and with about twenty minutes left, he once again called out and announced that they were going to have sparing sessions. Ichigo smirked. _Finally._

The redhead had been looking for an opponent for about a month without any luck and now their teacher was organizing spars. It was just what he needed. Though he had been able to train his muscles before joining the academy, his combat skills training had been lacking. Ichigo vaguely heard his name being called and walked to the center of the room. In front of him was a big, burly man who appeared ten years older the Ichigo, but God only knew how old the man really was. He scoffed.

"Really sensei? Couldn't you have given me someone who will put up a fight?" Ichigo bristled at that. He was probably one of the better fighters in the class and the man didn't want to fight him.

"Don't you remember what he said earlier?" The man turned around to look at Ichigo. "Never underestimate your opponent." He was just about to talk when Ichigo jumped forward and threw a punch; one that the other man just barely blocked. Ichigo just smirked as the man pushed him back.

"Why you – " He began throwing punches at the redhead who easily evaded every one. The burly guy had obviously neglected the fact that they were supposed to work on form rather just raw power. Ichigo blocked the next clumsy punch and then started throwing his own.

Everyone watched as the redhead attacked with stronger and faster combos than the older man. Ichigo was overpowering him, and he was the less muscled of the two. Eventually Ichigo had pushed the man back enough the he was practically falling backwards. He stumbled a bit and as he leaned forward to regain his balance, Ichigo came in with a hard uppercut to his jaw.

"Winner, Kurosaki." The instructor had been impressed with Ichigo's performance as much as the class was. From what little he had seen of the earlier practice, the boy wasn't getting even remotely challenged by his partner, so he decided to give him someone who would give him more of a fight. The man smirked; this was going to be a good year, he could already tell.

The class was soon dismissed and many were staring at Ichigo; some out of fright, some awe, but all annoying. He walked quickly out of the room and nearly tripped over Ao. The boy looked up at him with wide eyes and then quickly looked down at the ground. It was confusing, earlier he had been so happy and perky and now he looked shy and unsure.

"Um, Kida said you had hakuda this period and that you might be training later and that we could all meet up to go training together." He spoke quietly. Ichigo stared at him for a minute and then raised a hand to the back of his head.

"Yeah, I was planning to go train. So if you want to come you can." Ao's face lit up and he smiled up at the redhead again. The two started walking, or in Ao's case bouncing, off towards the gym.

The girls were already in the gym when the other two came in. Meg looked over and laughed; the happy puppy dog was back. By the time the mix-matched pair reached them, Meg was holding her stomach, laughing, and Kida was looking at her strangely. The boys soon gave her quizzical looks as well and the black-haired girl just waved an arm.

"It's nothing," but she was still laughing. When Meg finally stopped the four looked around. Whatever they had been expected it wasn't this. The "gym" was little more than a big empty room with sets of weights lining the wall. The four stared blankly ahead, along with another group that came in not long after them.

"Well, I guess you're the first ones." All of them spun around; none had heard the man come in. "I'm Gigano Dei and I'll be the one in charge of making sure that none of you kill yourselves before taking on a hollow." _How motivational._ Ichigo glanced around at the others, all of whom looked shocked and nervous. He couldn't blame them; he doubted any of them had encountered someone like him before. Gigano then yelled at them to get moving and the students were soon running over to the weights.

"Hey, Ichigo-san, don't you think that the instructor is a little…Ichigo-san?" Kida spun around trying to find her orange-haired friend and noticed that he was walking to the other side of the room. It didn't make any sense, the only think over there was a bar hanging about eight feet from the ground. The brunette watched as he then jumped up, grabbed the bar and began pulling himself up. _Pull-ups? Why would he do that?_ Meg noticed Kida staring and soon walked over to her as well.

"Huh. I didn't even think of that." She then looked over her shoulder at everyone else, most of whom were struggling with the weights, and then walked over to the redhead. Kida quickly followed; Ao too after he noticed.

"Ichigo," said teen dropped down to the floor and looked over at them. "What should we do?"

"Huh?" Meg then pointed over her shoulder.

"Well those idiots don't have a clue as to what to do and the drill sergeant doesn't seem too willing to help either. Besides, you're the only one here that seems to have had any kind of training, so what should we do?" Ichigo just raised his hand behind his head. He didn't know how to train someone; he had always been the trainee not the trainer.

"Look, I don't know. Just workout. That's all I do." He then sat down and started doing an abs circuit. Ao sat down and started doing the same thing and the girls just shrugged and copied him. Soon the three of them were doing Ichigo's workout regimen with him. It was strange but he didn't stop them, they probably would have just started again anyways. The hour soon ended and while sore, they were all glad for the workout and very much looking forward to dinner.


	7. Chapter 7

Just an edit. Found a few mistakes and felt the need to correct them. Nothing really major I don't think, but continue reading anyways.

Please read, review and enjoy :)

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**Chapter 7**

"You do that every day!"

"Something like that." Meg looked at the redhead aghast. Her legs were tighter than they had ever been, bad enough that it caused her to walk with a bit of a limp. How could he stand doing that kind of workout every day? _Damn. He must be in much better shape than I thought._ The four got food and sat down; it wasn't great but after their workout none of them really cared. Eventually they left the overcrowded cafeteria and opted for a shady spot under a tree behind one of the dorms. Ichigo leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. He was glad to be training again. For too long he had been weak and powerless and now he was finally getting back to normal. He scoffed. _Yeah, normal._

"What were your classes like?" Ao asked the girls. Both sat up and looked at each other. Ichigo opened his eyes too. Though they were in the regular class it would still be nice to know something about what might happen during kido.

"Well hakuda didn't seem so bad, but we were only doing basic attacks and blocks." Kida said with a slight blush. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that but didn't bother asking.

"Yeah, it's probably going to get a lot harder though," Meg added. "But I'll still take short, boring, and gloomy over our crazy kido teacher. I'm pretty sure she's bipolar." She lowered her head to the ground and thought for a minute. "Or maybe she's schizophrenic, or maybe she has that disease with multiple personalities." She cocked her head to the side and threw her hands up by her head. "I don't know. But something is definitely wrong with that woman." Ichigo closed his eyes and had to suppress a groan. A crazy kido teacher? _God, please let my kido teacher be sane._

"What about you? What's zanjutsu like?" Ao's smile fell a little. It wasn't too hard of a guess for Ichigo as to why. He was small which when first learning how to wield a sword could be a real disadvantage.

"I couldn't do it." Kida could see a bit of disappointment but also determination in the little boy's eyes and hers softened. Being in the advanced zanjutsu class must have been really tough on the small boy but he wasn't going to give up. "I'm just going to have to work harder so I'll be – ".

"Don't be stronger." The three turned to look at the redhead incredulous. Was he really telling Ao not to get stronger? Meg was just about to yell at him when he continued.

"Be faster." Ichigo opened his eyes and stared at him. "If they can't keep up, they can't hit you." It finally clicked; for all of them. Ichigo knew that because of his size, Ao wouldn't have the strength to compete in a battle of blows, but if he was faster he might stand a chance.

"You were better than almost everyone else during the hoho practical so use that. You still have to be strong, but being the stronger one doesn't guarantee you the fight." Ichigo stood and the three stared up at him. He was an imposing sight. They could see determination, confidence, and experience all reflected in his eyes. Ichigo moved to stand in front of Ao.

"Be smarter, be faster and be able to outlast your opponent." The brown eyes lost their hard edge and Ao smiled up at him determined. He would do it. He would train so that he was faster than the others and work hard so he could fight longer.

Meg put her arms behind her and leaned back. She sent a knowing smile in the redhead's direction, though it went unnoticed. _Kurosaki Ichigo. You're a better teacher than you think._

Ichigo woke up the next morning with a headache. He had a dream about his kido class, mainly about causing everything around him to explode. He groaned and got up, not looking forward to it in the slightest.

There was a heavy thud and Kida, Ao, and Meg jumped a bit. The sound came from Ichigo's tray being dropped on the table. Their redheaded friend sighed – although it came out sounding kind of like a growl – and slowly began eating his food. Kida stared at him wide-eyed and turned to look at the other two. Confusion and caution lined their features as they all tried to figure out what happened, but not wanting to ask. Breakfast was quiet that day and the three watched as Ichigo walked out the door with a glare that caused some of the students to move out of his way. Ao followed after him but didn't get as close to him as he normally would have. Ichigo got to the classroom and took a seat.

"Well, well, look who we have here. If it isn't the annoying insect who doesn't know his place in the world." Ichigo raised his head and stared at the black haired boy. It was the arrogant noble from the other day: Sengoku Segashi. _Damn. As if kido wasn't bad enough already._ Ichigo glared back at him.

"And it's the arrogant noble bastard who thinks he's better than everyone." The boy visibly bristled at that. He stared at the redhead, his green eyes never leaving his.

"I _am_ better than the rest of you." Ichigo leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, still not breaking eye contact. He was already in a bad mood for having kido this morning and didn't want to have to deal with the noble.

"So just because you were born in a fancy house with servants you think you can order everyone else around?" Segashi smirked; that was exactly what he believed to be true.

"It is my birthright to stand above the weak and idiotic and to give them orders." Ichigo stood up and got right in his face. By now everyone in the room was watching – many wondering who had the gall to stand up to a member of the Sengoku house – and hadn't noticed that the instructor had walked in.

"No one is born to order people around and – " Ichigo didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as he found himself bound on the ground. He along with the noble who was also on the ground turned when they heard a sickly sweet voice behind them.

"If you boys are finished I would like to start the lesson now." She released the kido and the two boys stood up. They glared at each other before Ichigo sat back down and Segashi grabbed a seat on the other side of the room. The woman waited for the class to quiet down before she began.

"Welcome to kido. I am Arina Mona and I have been charged with teaching you the demon arts this year." Mona gave the students a smile that reminded Ichigo a lot of the deceptively kind smiles that Unohana would sometimes give her patients. The redhead gulped. He was pretty sure he would rather deal with the fight crazed Kenpachi than an angry Unohana. He had never seen her truly angry and didn't want to. One thing was very clear though, if there was one teacher in this school who you didn't want to be on the bad side of, the woman in front of them was her. And it seemed like he already was.

"There are three types of kido that shinigami need to know. They are hado, bakudo, and healing spells. However, before you are able to use higher level spells it is an imperative that you learn to control your reiatsu." Mona went on to explain how to control their reiatsu and Ichigo for the first time paid attention in class. He needed a lot of help in this area. After a full hour-and-a-half lecture about controlling reiatsu and communicating with their zanpaktou, the class moved to a larger room for the practical.

"Please take a seat. Now, I want you to concentrate on your reiatsu. Finding it may take a while, but when you do, reach for it." The students did as she said and one-by-one fell into quiet meditative states, Ichigo too. He felt around for just a short while before finding his reiatsu and when he reached for it found himself waking up in his inner world. He sat up and put a hand to his head.

"Huh, so that's how that's supposed to work." He shrugged and stood up. As he looked around a small smile crossed his lips. It had been far too long since he had been there. As strange as the place was, he missed it, sideways buildings and all. The redhead sighed; it was good to be back. When he looked up, Ichigo saw that the grayish sky was starting to clear and the sun began to peak out from the clouds, but what really made him smile was that his inner world was no longer the small town it had been and had begun to grow. The skyscrapers were back and as he watched he noticed that some of them kept growing farther into the inverted sky.

"Ichigo." The redhead spun, nearly giving himself whiplash, and stared at his zanpaktou. He stood there just like he remembered; long, ragged black coat, brown sunglasses, and on top of the pole, the same as when Ichigo first met him.

"Zangetsu."


	8. Chapter 8

****Yay, new chapter. Sorry this one took so long to write. I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted Ichigo and Zangetsu's meeting to be like. It really should have been a lot easier considering they are both cannon characters but whatever. Anyways I hope you all like it and as always:

Read, Review and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 8**

"Zangetsu." Ichigo looked up at the zanpaktou with wide eyes. He thought the old man would be gone forever. The man smiled down at him; he was glad to no longer be forced to live in a world of small houses that was completely underwater.

Ichigo reached up over his shoulder and froze when he didn't feel the grip of his sword. He looked up confused at the zanpaktou spirit. He looked down and closed his eyes.

"It will still be a little longer Ichigo." Zangetsu met the boy's eyes and explained. "I've been sleeping this entire time Ichigo. Didn't you ever wonder why you could speak with me?" Now it was Ichigo's turn to look away. He felt ashamed. He'd betrayed his zanpaktou in order to save his friends and yet Zangetsu had been waiting for him to regain his powers; sleeping until his voice reached him again.

"I thought you would disappear after I used the final getsuga tenshou." The zanpaktou looked down at his innocent, impulsive, and sometimes foolish master and smiled. He jumped off the pole and walked towards the redhead.

"I am part of your soul, Ichigo. I won't just disappear for good." Ichigo looked up with a half-smile but was soon dragged out of his inner world. He looked up and glared at his teacher. Mona narrowed her eyes and smiled at the boy, but it didn't have the disguised irritation that it had earlier. Based on how he hadn't responded at all to her calling him she assumed that he'd reached his inner world and quite possibly met with his zanpaktou. Mona stood up and walked towards the center of the room.

"How many of you were able to enter your inner world?" Only about thirty people of the nearly fifty raised their hands. Mona nodded, she had expected as much. She had never had a class where everyone had accomplished it on the first day. Contrary to how simple the explanation was, the actually technique was more difficult to gain at first. This was mainly due to not many students knowing what reiatsu felt like or not being able to sense it.

"For those of you who were not able to, I should tell you that that is normal. Many people suffer with grasping their spiritual pressure on the first try and even fewer actually converse with their zanpaktou the first few times." The instructor looked over at Ichigo when she said this and met his eyes. There was a hard edge to the brown eyes and from it she guessed that she had been right about him talking with his zanpaktou. The boy was progressing fast and she let a small genuine smile cross her lips before turning to look back at the rest of the class. Many of whom looked frustrated or tired.

"Be prepared to do a similar exercise on Thursday. You're dismissed." The woman walked out of the room and the students slowly got up and followed her out.

Ichigo made his way to the cafeteria, luckily being able to avoid any confrontation with the Sengoku bastard, and found the other three. It wasn't too hard, Meg's hair stood out almost as much as his. Said girl looked up and saw him walk over and waited for the crashing of the tray on the table just like breakfast, but it didn't come. Ichigo just sat down and began eating his food like normal. Ao stared up at him. He'd been in a bad mood at the before their kido began and he bet that the fight with Segashi didn't help at all, but he seemed better now.

"Um, Ichigo-san." He looked up at her with raised eyebrows. "Is something, um, bothering you?" She asked timidly. Ichigo had startled her this morning and it was still making her nervous. The redhead just sighed.

"Nah. Just kido."

"What about it? Was your teacher as crazy as ours? Could you not find your reiatsu?" Now that the redhead didn't seem like he was going to rip their heads off for asking Meg quickly jumped in with her onslaught of rapid-fire questions. Ichigo leaned back and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yes. No. Wait, argh," Ichigo stumbled while trying to find the right words. He had a hard time keeping up with Meg and his elbows fell onto the table. The three looked at each other and then started laughing. Who would have guessed that their strong, intimidating friend would get flustered so easily. Ichigo glared at the laughing trio until they had suppressed their laughter to big smiles and frequent giggles.

"Ok," Kida giggled, "so what happened?" The redhead sighed but answered anyway.

"Not much really. She lectured about controlling reiatsu and then told us to find it and enter our inner world." The two girls looked at Ao for confirmation and the little puppy bog nodded; he was glad that Ichigo was back to normal. Meg then spun around back to the redhead and yelled at him.

"You got into your inner world!" Ichigo lowered his head and put his hand on it. He really hated attention and his loud friend didn't seem to care about the stares at all. The other looked at him as well.

"Yeah. Now shut up." He growled at her before sneaking glances around the room from under his bangs. Meg lowered her voice a bit. It's wasn't that she cared about the attention but she did enjoy being in one piece and seeing as Ichigo had a similar look in his eyes as he did that morning she complied.

"Did you really go to your inner world? What's it like?" She asked excitedly. Ichigo lowered his arm and the corner of his mouth curved into something vaguely resembling a smile.

"Just like I remembered." This shocked Meg and Kida a little. While they had heard what their crazy teacher called their zanpaktou's voices then had never seen their inner worlds. They listened to every quiet word their redheaded friend spoke. "Filled with tall skyscrapers that extended into the sideways sky."

"Your inner world is sideways?" Meg looked skeptical before laughing. "Man, you really are weird." Just as he was about to yell back at her someone put a hand on his shoulder. Ichigo turned and glared at the new comer.

"What do you want?" The boy narrowed his eyes a little at the annoyance that laced the redhead's words but spoke anyways.

"You didn't respond when the kido instructor when she called you." Ichigo nodded, still glaring at the blonde. "And you were able to enter your inner world." Again Ichigo nodded.

"So what if I was?" The blonde ignored him and continued with his assumptions.

"And you were able to speak with your zanpaktou." The boy's eyes narrowed inquisitively and he lowered his voice. It wasn't a question, but a statement just like the others. Ichigo wasn't sure how the blonde knew that or why he cared.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"No reason." He then walked away without offering an explanation. The redhead's answer had confirmed his suspicions. Hunter knew that the boy hadn't reacted to the instructor and noticed that she'd looked over at Ichigo when saying that some even spoke with their zanpaktou. Putting two-and-two together it made sense that he was not only able to enter his inner world but able to hear to his zanpaktou's voice as well. Hunter decided that he would introduce himself to the redhead the next time he had a chance. He walked back over to Segashi but left a seat between him and one of his 'friends'. When he looked up, Hunter noticed that Ichigo was staring over at his table with narrow eyes before turning back to his friends.

"Where did you go?" Segashi demanded. Hunter just shook his head at the controlling noble.

"Nowhere." Segashi glared at him but knew that he wouldn't get anything else out of the blonde. He could be very tight lipped when he wanted to be. Hunter glanced back over at the unusual foursome before turning in to listen to whatever insignificant nonsense the Sengoku noble was saying.

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In response to a guest review:

Yes, as of right now I do plan for this story to be fairly long. Not sure how long exactly, but considering this is chapter 8 and I'm only on the second day of school, it will probably be quite long. I haven't really decided about the captain thing. While he is powerful enough to be a captain, I sometimes get the feeling that he doesn't really want to be one. And as for Shiro...well, we'll see about that ;)

Thank you everyone for the views and reviews. Keep reading and happy new year!


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry, I feel like I haven't been able to write much for this story. I will try to update soon but unfortunately school likes to try and monopolize my time.

Until then, read, review, and enjoy :)

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**Chapter 9**

Ichigo turned back to them and Meg and Kida looked at each other.

"That was weird." Ao was just as confused as the others and kept glancing back over at the blonde but turned back to the redhead when he spoke.

"So did you get into your inner world?" A big smile made its way onto the small boy's face and he nodded fiercely. Ao looked like he was about to jump out of his seat while he began explaining what it was like.

"Well, it was really hard at first but once I found my reiatsu I grabbed it and pulled. The next moment I was waking up in a forest." It sounded a little odd; a forest wasn't what any of them had expected Ao's inner world to look like. "And I could see a mountain over the trees. But no matter far I walked I never seemed to get any closer to it." The boy scrunched his eyebrows a little at the end.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get there. I bet you'll even climb it too." Ao looked at the brunette who smiled down at him.

"Gee, our crazy kido teacher didn't even talk about inner worlds during our class and you're already going there. Totally not far," Meg pouted. She then got a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Hey Ichigo," said redhead turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "How do you do it?"

"How do you do what?" Meg sighed. _Were you even listening?_

"Enter your inner world? Is there some special technique or something?" The girl made circles in the air with her hands; she seemed to talk with her hands a lot. Ichigo put his hand to the back of his neck and thought for a minute.

"Uh, not really. Arina-sensei just said to reach for your reiatsu." Kida looked at him with some anticipation while Meg just looked confused.

"What the heck does that even mean?" People once again turned to look at them and Ichigo hung his head. It seemed that as long as Meg was around they would get lots of attention thanks to her big mouth.

"Look you just, I don't know," he sighed and lowered his voice. "You just feel it. It's like some unused power that's just…there." He wasn't making a lot of sense and he knew it but how was he supposed to explain something like that? No one had ever explained it to him. The only thing he was told was to meditate and when the instructor explained it he already knew how to do it.

"Is that how you found yours?" Kida was just like Meg; she wanted to see her inner world too, but they hadn't been taught how yet. She watched as the redhead brought his hand back up to his neck and shook his head, trying to come up with a reason.

"Well, I just…think of what I want to do. Why I want my shinigami powers," _again._

"And why's that?" His eyes met Kida's and she saw fierce determination in the brown orbs.

"To protect those I care about." His eyes didn't waver from hers and Kida felt herself blush. She dropped her eyes and Ichigo looked at the other two. They each smiled as he looked at them. Even though they hadn't known each other very long, they felt that they were already a part of that group.

The bell rang a little later and the four headed towards their classes. Meg ended up walking with Ichigo because they both had zanjutsu next. She looked up at the redhead who seemed almost excited for the class. Meg just shook her head, if he fought to protect then why would he be looking forward to a class where the point of it is to learn how to slice your opponent to ribbons? _Talk about a conundrum. Although, that would explain why his inner world is sideways._ Meg's classroom came up first and the two said their goodbyes. Ichigo smirked as he walked into his and took a seat. He couldn't wait for class to start.

Ichigo watched as the students filed in, keeping his eye on the door in anticipation. Finally the room filled up and the teacher walked in. He was not what Ichigo had been expecting. The man was tall but not bulky, built like an athlete, a fighter, rather than an overly muscled Hulk like his kendo teacher had been when he took lessons as a kid.

"I'm Okano Kenjiro and this is Kitotsu Teru. He will be here as an assistant should any of you need additional help."

"It's a pleasure to - hey, it's you!" Upon spying the familiar orange head of hair, Teru pointed at Ichigo with a giant grin plastered on his face and his eyes alight. The startled teen looked up at him slightly confused before he finally figured it out; the excited Hisagi look-a-like was his proctor from the entrance exam. Ichigo didn't know what to say, and leaned forward and lowered his head a bit. Why was it that people liked drawing attention to him?

"You know him?" One of the students towards the front of the room had turned back to glance at Ichigo before looking back at their new assistant.

"Yeah. I was his proctor for his entrance exam. The kid's great."

"I told you, I've only been trained a couple times." He answered without looking up. Teru just looked at the boy skeptically. The shinigami crossed his arms and shook his head. Either the teen was lying and wanted to punk everyone or was playing down his skills so as not to draw attention. However, Teru was sure the kid was lying about his amount of training.

"Sorry, but bullshit. No one gets as good as you are without years of training." Their assistant was still smiling and Ichigo looked up to scowl at him. "Come on Ichigo, out with it. I being doing entrance exams for decades and believe me even the prodigies didn't come in with that much experience. So – "

"Kitotsu-san," the black haired shinigami flinched and looked over his shoulder at the stern looking man. "We're starting the lesson." Teru looked back up at Ichigo and pinned him with a pointed stare.

"We're finishing this later." Ichigo groaned and dropped his head onto his desk, not even paying attention to all the strange stares he was getting. That day just kept getting better; first Sengoku in kido and now his hyper-active inquisitive proctor in zanjutsu. A proctor who was probably itching for another fight and would be quick to grab it during the practical.


	10. Chapter 10

A bit longer chapter for having a longer wait. Sorry about that. Anyway, I hope you're all having a happy Valentine's Day.

Okay :)

As always, Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 10**

The lecture, which Ichigo had figured would pass slowly considering he knew everything, went by incredibly fast and before he knew it, it was time for the practical. Nervous students mixed with excited ones piled out of the room and into the larger arena style room, complete with benches along the walls.

"Alright everyone, go over and grab a sword and partner up." Ichigo turned to look at the swords they would be using only to find that they kendo shinai. _Shinai, really?_ He growled. _Well I guess it's to make sure people don't kill each other._ Ichigo sighed and walked over to grab one. He went wide-eyed when he picked it only to narrow them shortly after. It was ridiculously light, like he holding a stick. Distantly he wondered how long it would take him to break it, but his thoughts were soon interrupted but a short, stocky guy.

"Hey, I hear you're pretty good. Well," he said taking a stance. "So am I." _Must be another noble, _he thought as the other teen lunged at him with a downward swipe only to keep falling when Ichigo spun out of the way. Taking the stance he had adopted while learning to fight with a sword a foot longer and significantly heavier, the boy turned to laugh at him.

"Pretty good? You must be joking, you don't even know how to hold a sword correctly." Teru couldn't help but snicker from the sidelines. That kid, Etorin, didn't have any idea what Ichigo was capable of. As if to prove his point, Ichigo darted forward and swung from the side, forcing the noble boy back a couple steps. The look on his face was priceless. People turned when they heard the assistant laughing and saw him hunched over, holding his stomach. He stayed like that for most of the one-sided fight.

Ichigo stepped back from the other teen and took a wide stance once again. They exchanged a few more hits, most of which were on Ichigo's part, before Etorin swung down. From everyone else's point of view it looked like the noble was pushing Ichigo down to the ground but nothing could be further from the truth. The orange haired teen had bent his knee and was slowly lowering himself to the ground. He glanced up and saw the conceded smirk covering the noble's face and smirked back.

"You're arrogant." Suddenly he pushed up, throwing Etorin's arms up over his head. The noble, too shocked to defend himself was then hit with a powerful swing as Ichigo followed the motion with a big one-armed winding swing and crashed the shinai into his side just below his ribs. Etorin cried out in pain. There wasn't a doubt in Ichigo's mind that the noble would have a lovely purple bruise the next day. He lowered the "sword" to his side and stood looked down at the hunched over teen.

"How dare you," Etorin huffed at the orange haired teen who just shrugged.

"No one's going to hold back in a real fight. You might as well get used to it." Everyone watched as the two teens just stood there having a staring contest, neither willing to break contact. A tense atmosphere filled the large room as no one said anything. At least until a stern voice sounded from the back of the room.

"Kurosaki-san," said teen looked over his shoulder at the instructor. He had his hands clasped behind his back and walked over to him with a strong stride. Kenjiro looked at the boy interested. It seemed that Teru had been right about the boy's skill. The man signaled over to the assistant and told him to fight with him. Teru's smile grew before turning to Ichigo with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Let's go Ichigo." The two started fighting and Kenjiro immediately noticed that is was a much more evenly matched fight than he had imagined it would be. He'd had a hunch that Ichigo had been holding back against Etorin and wanted to see if he was right, but he hadn't thought that he would have been holding back that much. One thing that specifically caught his eye though was that everyone once in a while Ichigo would throw in a one-handed swing. He wasn't sure where he had learned to fight that way; it wasn't a commonly taught zajutsu style and the strikes appeared to be just as powerful as the two-handed ones. _Kurosaki Ichigo, just who taught you how to fight?_

The other students went back to practicing themselves while Etorin, with bruised side and ego, walked over to the wall holding his side and glared at the orange haired teen. Many of the students kept sneaking glances at the talented first year. He was able to keep up with their assistant and wasn't being completely overpowered. It was incredible. Two students in particular were paying closer attention to Ichigo: Hunter and a girl by the name of Akame Maira. After doing some damage to her opponent in the form of compliments and flirtations, he had rolled over like a puppy and was watching her with adoring eyes. She smirked, thinking about the fool. He had some muscle to him but was rather plain otherwise but it didn't really bother her; just another boy under her thumb. But as she watched the fight, Maira became more and more interested in the orange haired teen. He was strong and handsome, exactly her type. She watched as Ichigo's shinai met Teru's before the two jumped apart only to attack again moments later. When the instructor finally for them to return their "swords" back to the rack on the wall both were panting heavily.

"Damn, you're good." Teru laughed. Ichigo just met his eyes and smirked before returning the shinai – he refused to call it a sword – to the rack. He then walked out after a quick glance back at the smiling, panting shinigami. On his way out he ran into the girl who had been watching him earlier, not that he had noticed.

"Hey," she said making him look at her.

"Yo."

"I'm Akame Maira. Sorry, but what's your name again? I didn't catch it earlier." Maira looked up at him from beneath long lashes and placed one hand on her neck, the other under her well-endowed chest. He looked over at her, scowl in place.

"Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Hmm…It's a pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki Ichigo." She practically purred out his name but to her annoyance he seemed completely unaffected by it. "Are you doing anything right now?" Ichigo walked past her before turning slightly to look at her.

"Fitness training," he called over his shoulder and walked off. It irritated Maira greatly that he wasn't just caving to her but at the same time she kind of liked it. From what she had seen, the orange haired teen didn't seem to be someone weak who would just roll over when push came to shove. No, she would have to work for this one, _but they all fall in the end._ She smirked to herself and walked off in the opposite direction of the gym and was soon followed by her "opponent" from class.

"You're not seriously going to go workout again are you?" Meg looked at him disbelievingly. She was still sore from the day before and Ichigo was going back already. Said teen just shrugged.

"Yeah, figured I should probably get into a regular routine again." The loud girl just stared at him as they walked back to find the other two. Soon Kida came up to them, breathing deeply, and Ao shortly after her, rubbing his arm with a sad frown. However, the boy brightened up considerably when he saw the rest of them.

"Hey, is your arm okay?" Kida asked. She had seen the boy rubbing it and then remembered that he had just come from his hakuda practical. The little copper looked up and nodded.

"Yeah. I just got hit in hakuda. Only once though, but I got him back." The smirk that appeared on his face seemed a little out of place and Meg feared that he might soon start taking after Ichigo and start scowling all the time. She shook her head and pointed over at Ichigo.

"That's cool, now will someone please help me in trying to figure out why this fool is going to go train again." Kida and Ao looked over at him curiously and slightly surprised at what their blue highlighted friend had just said.

"You're going to go train again? Didn't you just get out of zanjutsu?" Ichigo nodded and started walking in the direction of the gym again. Not knowing what else to do, the three followed him. They got to the gym and Meg groaned. Why she had followed was a mystery, but since they were there she was probably going to be forced to train, if not by the not-so-helpful Gigano then by Kida. She groaned again but slumped down next to Kida and started stretching. With that they all dove right into their workouts; Meg's, Kida's, and Ao's being less strenuous than Ichigo's. After one day they all quickly discovered that if they were going to be working out frequently like he did then they were going to die if they tried doing everything he did. Some of the people from the day before had returned as well, albeit not many. After noticing Ichigo previously, some of them took the hint and started doing exercises other then simply trying to lift weights in awkward motions, having no real idea if they were doing it right. With about fifteen minutes left Ichigo called for Ao and walked outside with the small boy running to catch up. The girls finished up what they were doing and five minutes later joined the boys outside. In a small field out back, Ichigo and Ao were shunpoing around. Ichigo looked like a bit of a blur to the girls but they could see Ao. He seemed to be chasing after the orange haired blur and as they watched was growing more stable with each step. Meg crossed her arms and watched, slightly jealous that they made it look much easier than it really was while Kida was watching the small boy with a smile. He seemed so focused and yet so happy about being able to train with Ichigo after having heard his advice regarding zanjutsu: _don't be stronger, be faster._ Ao soon came to a stop by the girls, smiling even though covered with sweat. Ichigo did a minute late.

"Come on. Let's go get something to eat." Kida said.

"Yeah," Meg agreed. "I could use it." They headed to the cafeteria, got more bland school food, and took a seat at one of the long tables before getting into mindless chatter. Ichigo zoned out when Meg began talking about guys were arrogant and thought that women were weak and shouldn't be allowed to be ranked officers or something like that. Her loud voice faded into the background as Ichigo focused on his inner world. He hadn't noticed it the last time, but his hollow hadn't been in sight and he hadn't heard his maniacal laugh or any snide comments for his albino double. While he liked the peacefulness, it was disconcerting to not know what had happened to a part of his soul.

_Hey, Zangetsu. Where is he?_ The old man didn't answer for a moment but he soon heard his zanpaktou's reassuring voice.

_[He is fine, Ichigo. Much like how I was asleep when you didn't have your shinigami powers, he was asleep as well. Do not worry. He should wake soon.]_ He sighed at that. Soon the annoying hollow would be back but at least then he wouldn't have that nagging feeling of being off kilter. Suddenly there was a snapping in front of his eyes and he jerked back slightly. The perpetrator, Meg, looked at him curiously, strangely, and all over confused about his unresponsiveness.

"Welcome back to Earth. Care to share what it was you were spacing out about?" Ichigo shook his head.

"Just thinking about something." He shook his head again at her raised eyebrow. Just as Meg was about to start pumping him for information Kida, ever the mediator, intervened.

"Meg, I'm sure it is something Ichigo-san would share with us if he felt the need to." Their rambunctious friend let it go in the end and conversation returned to normal before they all went their separate ways, promising to meet up for breakfast the next day.

After a quick stop in his room, Ichigo went down to the bath and let the warm water loosen his tense muscles. It had been a long day between the Sengoku noble prick, the zealous zanjutsu assistant, and the training afterwards. His thoughts drifted to his short conversation with his zanpaktou. His inner hollow was still sleeping. Zangetsu hadn't outright said it but if Shiro had been awake odds are he would have replied with some snarky comment about how his _king_ was _so_ worried about him. Ichigo sighed and soaked for a bit longer before going back to his room. When he got there he noticed a piece of paper on the desk.

"Midget," he said with false annoyance. He had missed everyone but the letter reminded him of the first one he had gotten right before Rukia had been taken back to Soul Society with her brother and Renji. There were all sorts of drawings of Chappy on it, that stupid bunny the girl was obsessed with. After deciphering the clue at the bottom of the page, he read the note.

_Good job dying, Strawberry._

_Thought you should know that no one from the Gotei 13 is_

_allowed to visit during your time at the academy._

_At least without specific instructions to do so._

_Yamamoto Soutaichou's orders._

_I'm glad you're back._

_~Rukia_

Ichigo smiled slightly at the note before turning off the light and crawling into bed.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys, sorry for the months with no updates. I don't really have an excuse other than writer's block so do forgive.

Anyway, thank you for all the reviews, they mean a lot. Also, I had one that said I had a lot of OCs. Now I know this is true and was wondering if I should upload a companion piece strictly of the OCs. (I already have a list for myself). If you think I should please tell me and as always,

Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 11**

Ichigo was spacing off as he walked towards the room for his hoho practical. It had been nearly a week since he had first spoken to Zangetsu after a grueling two years and even though he had assured him that everything was fine Ichigo couldn't quite shake off the thoughts that something might be wrong with his inner hollow. He raised a hand to the back of his head and didn't notice that the other students had already begun practicing. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders, causing him to let out a startled shriek in the process and turn to face his smiling instructor. It was only then that he looked around and saw everyone else working that he got the idea.

Rei watched as the teen grumbled to himself before taking off and started laughing. She watched the redhead as he stepped around the others in their clumsy attempts at shunpo but her grin soon grew contemplative as she began to wonder just what had caused him to get so deeply into thought that he didn't even realize what was going on around him. During her lecture she was pretty sure he had been spacing off for at least part of it but hadn't called him out on it; she wasn't sure he would respond if she did. Unable to get into Ichigo's mind to see what had him so consumed, Rei went back to watching the others make complete fools of themselves – at times becoming thoroughly dirt covered – and went to offer some assistance to those who really needed it.

The rest of the day passed similarly for Ichigo. Even Meg's loud chatter was being tuned out. The four had met back up after their second classes and began following Ichigo in what Meg quickly noticed was not the way to the gym. Once they were at the edge of the courtyard where they had signed up for the test he stopped and glanced over his shoulder.

"Sorry guys. I need some time to think." Not understanding, the girls watched as Ichigo took off running through the large gate and into Soul Society.

"Okay, seriously. What is his problem?" Kida shook her head at Meg, not having a clue as to what their friend was thinking about.

"He was like that in our hoho class too." The two girls looked at the small copper questioningly. Ao fidgeted a little under their gazes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he was really distracted. Ichigo-nii didn't even notice when everyone else started practicing during the practical." As the three fretted over their friend none had noticed someone standing just out of sight.

He ran. He wasn't sure if he was running to something or away from it but he was. Ichigo kept running until he found himself in the district he had woken up in, the 42nd. Why his feet had taken him there he didn't really know but he soon found himself walking in the direction of Choukichi's house. Once he got close enough he spotted some of the kids the man took care of playing outside and was soon noticed by a familiar face.

"Ichigo nii-san!" Maiha came running up to him and hugged his legs. She really was just like Yuzu had been when she was little. The little blonde looked up and him and smiled before grabbing his hand and pulling him in the direction of the house.

"Onii-chan, he's back. Ichigo nii-san is back!" She said as the man appeared from around a corner. He greeted the orange haired teen and then saw the look in his eyes. Something was bothering him, he could tell.

"Hey Maiha," the little girl looked up at the brunette, "why don't you go outside and play with the others. Ichigo and I need to talk for a bit." Maiha pouted for a bit but soon went out to play with the others, content with knowing that she could talk to Ichigo later. Choukichi led him into the small kitchen before staring at him questioningly.

"How's the academy treating you? Not quite what you expected?" Ichigo shook his head a little surprised that the man's thoughts would immediately go in that direction. Then again, he had told him that being a shinigami wasn't what he thought it was.

"No it's not that. It's just that, something's missing and I don't know how to get it back." Ichigo wasn't exactly sure why he was opening up to the almost complete stranger but if he would listen maybe he could help. However he definitely wasn't about to tell him part of his soul was a hollow.

"The strange voice in your head?"

"Yeah, something like that." Choukichi sighed and closed his eyes, lowering his head.

"It's your zanpaktou." _No it's not,_ Ichigo thought but nodded anyways. "They should have told you that at the academy." He nodded again.

"Yeah, that crazy voice in my head. It's…well it's, sleeping and I don't know how to wake it up." Choukichi raised an eyebrow at that. He'd never heard that sort of thing referred to as 'sleeping' but shrugged it off. He opened his mouth to continue when a couple small children ran through the room and latched onto the table.

"Hey Onii-chan, when are we having dinner?" The man sighed, _figures they would ask about food._

"Soon guys. I'll get in started after I'm done talking." The two began whining about wanting food and he reluctantly got up and walked over to the cupboard. Knowing that they would get food soon, the two ran back outside to keep playing until Choukichi called them in for dinner.

"Sleeping huh?" Choukichi asked, bringing the conversation back onto Ichigo. "I don't really know what to tell you about that. The only thing I can tell you is to meditate, try and reach out to it. It'll come back." After seeing the uncertain look on the teen's face Choukichi turned to him and spoke quietly, solemnly. "Do you really want it to come back?" Ichigo looked up at the man, confused by the sudden change. The only other time he'd heard the man like that was when he spoke about his brief time as a shinigami. He dropped his eyes, leaned back against the countertop and put his hands out behind him. Choukichi sighed before telling him.

"The same sort of thing happened to me. I heard by zanpaktou's voice but then it disappeared. I couldn't hear him at all or even sense him. As if he'd never been then to begin with. Then one day it came back. It was during one of my kido practicals. Before that I'd only heard him speak in fragmented sentences but that time I heard him loud and clear and I didn't like what he had to say." Choukichi looked up and could see the teen's questioning look but didn't elaborate. It wasn't something he wanted to share, ever. Instead he met Ichigo's eyes again and repeated his question from earlier.

"Do you really want it to come back?" Without hesitancy Ichigo nodded. He just didn't feel whole without the hollow part of him, no matter how crazy and psychotic it was. Choukichi lowered his head knowing that there was no way he was talking Ichigo out of this; the teen had already proven himself to be stubborn and in his opinion foolish, but determined as well. The man could only hope that Ichigo liked what the voice had to say more than he had. He turned and went back to working on dinner, pushing thoughts of that time to the back of his mind.

"Are you going to stay for dinner? It should be ready in about ten minutes." The change of tone in the other's voice from the solemn to light-hearted was clear but Ichigo let it slide. It was obviously a touchy subject, just like his mother's death had been for him, so instead he agreed and went to get the children a few minutes later.

On his run back towards the academy Ichigo couldn't help but wonder about what Choukichi had said; what his zanpaktou had said. Could it really have been that bad? Sure his hollow was annoying and was trying to take over his body but even then. He shook his head trying to stop his thoughts from continuing to run in circles. It was later than he had realized and all he really wanted to do was sleep, but unfortunately it seemed that sleep would have to wait. Standing there just inside the gate to the school was Gengoro Onabara. Ichigo sighed; that day was just not going his way.

"Follow me." The large man turned and headed towards what Ichigo was sure would turn out to be the administrative building. He was right.

Ichigo nodded to everything the head master said. He knew that he wasn't really supposed to leave but he also wasn't supposed to have an inner hollow. Sighing, Ichigo looked up at the old man when he spoke again.

"Should this happen again there will be severe punishment. Is that understood?" Ichigo nodded and was dismissed. Mikotsu Henke, who had been there during the teen's entrance exam, personally wanted more than just a simple warning for his blatant disregard for the academy rules but clenched his fists and stayed quiet; it was useless to argue with the head master and he knew it. So he was forced to just watch as Ichigo walked out the door.

He hurried back to his dorm not wanting to run into anyone else but slumped when he saw Kida leaning against his door. She straightened when she saw him and looked down as he walked closer.

"I was just wondering what happened?" Kida glanced up. She and the others had been worried about him; running off like that didn't seem like something he would do normally. Eventually he shook his head and explained – vaguely – what had been bothering him. With knowing what had him so distracted all day, Kida began walking away but quickly turned back.

"Did it help? Your run," she asked. Ichigo stared at her for a moment. Had talking to Choukichi helped? He sighed, and lowered and shook his head.

"I don't know." With that he closed his door and leaned back against it. "I don't know." He walked over, got changed and then collapsed on his bed, quickly falling into a restless sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

****Hey guys, sorry for the really long break before posting a new chapter. It seems my muse was on vacation. Oh well, now onto the next. Hope you all enjoy and thanks for continue reading. As always,

Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 12**

It had been a long day and it was about to get even longer. Ichigo reluctantly walked into the classroom for his least favorite but required class: law and government. Luckily the class was only held twice a week but it didn't make in any less annoying and unbearable. After discovering the first day of class that it was going to be just as bad as the government classes had been when he was alive, Ichigo began to zone out and started counting just how many laws he had broken when the instructor began the lecture. He flinched when he reached twenty and it was just the first day of class.

_It's a good thing I saved all their asses else I'd be locked up as long as Aizen._ The thought immediately brought a deeper scowl to his face. Aizen. Even after everything he had done, all the pain he had caused he would still be released after his sentence. He didn't care if it was 20,000 years, it was still too soon. The bastard should have been locked up forever. Lost in his hate-filled thoughts, Ichigo only snapped out of it when he heard someone say the words "war hero". His head shot up and he stared blankly ahead unseeingly. He'd almost forgotten about that. He was the "ryoka", the "war hero", the one who had defeated Aizen, the one who apparently was about to become the focal point of the entire class. Ichigo gulped and dropped his head on the desk. _So much for going unnoticed. Well, it was nice while it las…ted._ From the corner of his eye he could see their instructor smile one of those I-have-a-secret smiles and gulped again. For a teacher – alive or dead – to wear a smile like that was never a good thing.

"I will briefly be discussing the ryoka invasion during the next class, but more information concerning the Winter War will be taught in your History classes later this week." The instructor glanced around the room and for a second Ichigo thought her eyes might have stayed on him a little too long but really hoped he was wrong. The class was dismissed soon after that and Ichigo made his way back to the dorms, happy to be done for the day. When he got there he collapsed on his bed, hearing it groan in protest, and brought his hands up to cover his eyes. It seemed his relatively peaceful life at the academy was about to get a lot more interesting. He would later learn just how much of an understatement that really was.

Ichigo sighed but got up when he heard an impatient pounding on his door. _Probably Meg,_ his suspicions were confirmed as he opened the door, scowl already in place. His blue-haired friend stood in front of his door with her hands on her hips, head cocked to one side.

"Come on, lazy. We've got a gym appointment that I don't want to miss." Ichigo quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Who are you and what have you done with Meg?" Said girl narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Is it so wrong for me to _want_ to go workout?"

"Yes," three voices answered simultaneously. Ichigo looked up as Meg turned and saw Kida and Ao walking over to them. After the pleasantries were over with the three were somehow able to derail Meg in her uncharacteristic interest in going to the gym and settled for finding a quiet spot under a tree to relax. Ichigo was just about to that point when Ao's words caught him off guard and he froze for the second time in the last hour.

"I can't wait to hear about the ryoka invasion. They must have been pretty brave to charge into the Seireitei like that." The small copper said quietly, knees pulled up to his chest. Meg snorted.

"Yeah, pretty stupid too. I mean, who charges into a city full of armed and trained soldiers with no experience to save someone they've known for, like, a month?"

_Me, _Ichigo thought annoyed and feeling kind of stupid when she put it that way. But it made sense at the time and he would do it again anyway. He sighed and dropped his head on his knees.

"Well, I think it's romantic." _Oh God._ "He must have really cared about her to train that hard to save her." Kida adorned a distant, dazed expression no doubt imagining a romantic love that never was. Ichigo shook his head and tried to distract Kida enough so that she would stop having any more wild fantasies about his – even if she didn't know it was him - "romantic" escapades, chasing after the woman he "loved".

"How do you guys know so much about them anyways?" Kida came out of her daze and looked over at him questioningly. Surely he had heard some of the stories? Granted they had been passed around so much that many were more likely rumors than anything close to the truth but even the kids in the higher districts had heard about the humans who had stormed the gates of the Gotei 13. It had become a mission of sorts for a lot of the children hoping to get out of the Rukongai to find out everything they could about the humans who had gained such immense power. However, before she could ask, Meg beat her to the punch.

"How could you not know? They've been the biggest thing to happen to Soul Society in, well, a long time." Meg had gotten up and began pacing and waving her arms around trying to make a point of just how big a deal the invasion was.

"What about the Winter War?" Ichigo retorted before mentally slapping himself. Why did he have to bring that up?

"I think the ryoka invasion is more imporant," Ao said quietly from the side. The other three turned to look at him before asking why. "Because," the copper said, "aren't they the ones that were really important? The ryoka was the one to end the war so if they never came the shinigami might have lost." Ao was looking up at them earnestly once he finished. His eyes strayed to Ichigo, almost as if looking for approval and the orange-haired teen nodded. The kid had a point.

"Yeah, I suppose it makes sense when you say it that way," he conceded as he ran a hand through his hair. Ao smiled and set his head on his knees, glad that the teen had agreed with him. Kida looked between the two and smiled as well; it was nice to see the smaller boy smiling again. The conversation soon turned away from the more serious topic by Meg, who had gone back to her usual self with loud complaining about how their teachers were babying them and not letting them do anything fun. Ichigo, thankful for the change in topic, listened to the girl rant with Kida interrupting every so often, attempting to ease her fellow classmate's irritation; their crazy kido teacher being the prime target.

Meg soon exhausted herself of protests and fell back down onto the soft grass, arms spread wide. She closed her eyes as the other three began less ferocious descriptions of their classes. Kida conceded that although a little boring her instructors were still making sure to be through with their explanations and patient with the students. Ao was excited to share his fairly successful results in kido and that he was getting closer to the mountain in his inner world, although he was still a fair ways away. Kida praised him for it, sincerely, and even Ichigo congratulated him on the progress. The small copper beamed up at him and Meg had to hold back the fit of giggles that was rising within her; she could practically see a tail wagging behind him, but eventually she couldn't hold back anymore and started rolling around, holding her stomach, laughing. The others stared at her curiously, not having any idea why she was laughing which only made her laugh harder.

Soon the four headed back towards the cafeteria for dinner and Ichigo scowled deeper than usual; he missed Yuzu's cooking. School food he can deal with for a while but having it three meals a day, seven days a week was on its way to unbearable. He sighed but ate it anyway; it wasn't like there was anything else to eat. After dinner the four of them broke off, Kida and Meg off to study the history and government material they had been given, Ao made his way to a small open area to practice his shunpo some more and Ichigo headed back to his room for a mediation session with Zangetsu. He got to his room, sat down, and got in the pose for jinzen and soon enough found himself standing on one of the many skyscrapers that made up his inner world.

The old man stood up on his flagpole like always and Ichigo smiled up at him.

"How've you been ossan?" Zangetsu stared down at him, a ghost of a smile appearing on his lips.


	13. Chapter 13

Finally a new chapter. I apologize for the late update. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it. As always,

Read, Review, and Enjoy :)

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**Chapter 13**

"Kurosaki-san, please focus. If you continue exploding targets than I will request that you sit out for the remainder of the class." After blushing slightly at Arina-sensei's kindly stated demand, Ichigo tried to concentrate of whatever spell it was that they were working on; hado number twenty-seven, thirty-two? Something like that. However he soon blew up another target and with a cursory glance at the instructor, sat down against the wall. Throwing his hands on his knees, Ichigo's mind wandered back to what could possibly happen this afternoon. Once again he had his government class which meant a "brief" discussion about the ryoka invasion.

As their instructor walked into the room, Ichigo never took his eyes off of her. It was time for him to face the music – Government. He growled slightly and lowered his head until it was almost on the table, his bright hair falling over his eyes. She began the lecture thankfully without the invasion but after an agonizing ten minutes it came.

"The Ryoka Invasion happened as the result of an artifact being brought into the Seireitei. It had immense power beyond what many are capable of understanding and had it fallen into the wrong hands, could have had devastating consequences." Ichigo scowled; there was more than one thing tweaked about her story but he wasn't about to point it out. The longer he went without being exposed the better.

"This artifact had been imbedded into a shinigami who acted as a sacrificial vessel, to be executed in order to gain possession of it. The ryoka are believed to have known about this artifact, but not of its power, and had come to Soul Society in an attempt to retrieve it." _Where in the world did they come up with this story? _As true as some of the parts were, others seemed to be played up for dramatic effect and they certainly hadn't had a damn clue about the Hyogyoku when they went to save Rukia. His scowled only deepened when the questions started coming; too many of them dreamed up in some fanciful adventure for Ichigo's liking.

"Didn't the ryoka invade to save their friend?" The commonly told story throughout many of the districts had been, originally, fairly close to the truth, leaving a few students doubtful of both.

"Yes, it was an objective of the ryoka to rescue the shinigami, one happened because of the other. However in the end they were unable to retrieve the artifact." _At least I tried._ Ichigo glared from the back, remembering how none of the shinigami there had lifted a finger to try and stop Aizen from leaving.

"But they still managed to come back and get it in the end," one of the students stated.

"Yes," the instructor nodded. "And because of the invasion and the ryoka's later involvement in the Winter War, many laws have been reevaluated." As she moved on with the lecture Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief; the discussion had been less painful than he thought it would be. Unfortunately, in his momentary relief the fact that he would have to face the music again in his history class the next day was pushed to the back of his mind.

"Can you believe her?" Meg stomped around the tree the other three had taken to lying beneath once they'd finished their workout and dinner. Before any of them could get a word in she continued. "I mean, we finally get to hear about the invasion and all we get is a 'they came because of an artifact, rescuing the girl being a direct result of that, before they ultimately failed in retrieving the magical bauble of unimaginable power'. Ao and Kida laughed at the rather accurate impersonation of their government instructor; Meg's lecture being somewhat summarized, but "accurate" nonetheless. The four later parted as the sun began to set, leaving Ichigo the unwanted task of studying kido – much to the insistence of Arina-sensei. Overall the woman seemed to like him, but even he and his not-quite-as-frequent-as-expected kido explosions irritated her at times.

Ichigo woke up the next morning with a killer headache and for the life of him couldn't figure out why. It wasn't like he had done anything too strenuous the day before. Then again, maybe it was all those crazy confusing kido incantations that were messing with his head. Shaking his orange head, he got up and got ready for the day, heading down for breakfast shortly after.

"Finally today we get to actually learn something about it." Easily picking out his blue-haired friend, Ichigo grabbed some food and found the other three, taking a spot next to Ao.

"Learn about what," he asked, disinterestedly.

"The Winter War, what else?" Ichigo froze, eyes wide. That explained his headache. He had completely forgotten their history class today would be coving the events of the war. Suddenly he didn't have much of an appetite. The rest of breakfast went by with him responding with noncommittal grunts and the occasional 'uh-huh', but he really had no idea what they were talking about; too busy trying to figure out what he was going to do. A task that was twice as difficult with a pounding headache.

The morning flew by way too quickly. The only reminder that he had been sparing was the growing purple bruise on his ribs from a strike courtesy of Teru in his zanjutsu practical. Lunch and hoho flew by in a similar matter. As he walked towards his dreaded history classroom Ichigo stared at the ground, still trying to think of something to do. Maybe he could feign sickness, but then the others would come question him about, not to mention tell him everything they had learned. Run away; injure the instructor; destroy the classroom; his ideas became more and more idiotic the closer he got until he was standing right outside the door. He gave a deep sigh before walking in to face the music, again; his mind offering one that sounded eerily like a funeral procession. Ichigo quickly and quietly took a seat and sat tensed as the instructor walked in. He gulped and the music got louder.

"Hello class," a rather enthusiastic response was given before he continued. "Now why don't we begin with our study of the Ryoka Invasion and the Winter War." Excited murmurs filled the room, some louder than others, but all drowning out Ichigo's groan. _Fuck._

"As you all have been told, the ryoka came to the Seireitei in order to save a shinigami and keep a powerful device known as the Hogyoku out of enemy hands. That being said," the instructor said upon seeing multiple mouths open, "it was discovered after the execution had been stopped that they were in fact never our enemies to begin with." The lecture continued as the woman explained in surprisingly semi-accurate detail – more so than in law and government – what had gone on during the Ryoka Invasion. Ichigo found himself mentally correcting her on a few points but overall it was generally accurate. Of course she didn't identify the names of the captains or Rukia but he figured that was at least partially to save face; wouldn't want anyone to know that a human teenager had defeated two captains, a lieutenant, and multiple seated officers. It was bad enough knowing that three captains had turned traitor. As the lesson progressed, Ichigo couldn't help but be acutely aware of the 'wow's and 'that is so cool's that surrounded him.

"Hey sensei," the woman turned to face a small teen a couple rows back. "That guy, the one that stropped the execution, what was he like?" One amazed student asked. The question got many nods and comments from around him before everyone turned to stare at the front of the room. She smiled.

"Well, actually, I am very pleased to announce that you will all now have a chance to meet him." _Oh shit._ "Because he is how attending this school. Everyone, I'm honored to introduce you to the hero of the Winter War. Shinkai Hiro." _God dam – what?_ Ichigo froze as a man maybe four or five years older than him walked in the door. Everyone else paused as the man walked to the front of the class before going absolutely nuts. It took ten minutes for the instructor to get the class in order and even then they were all still whispering amongst themselves.

_What the hell?_ Ichigo just stared on dumbstruck. This man…the war hero? Was this some kind of ploy by the Gotei Thirteen to make sure he didn't give himself away? Like that was going to happen, Ichigo already got enough attention simply from being in the vicinity of Meg. Screw the rules, he wanted answers. _Midget, you've got a lot of explaining to do._

The second their instructor dismissed them Ichigo was out the door and halfway to his room, quickly avoiding everyone and everything. He opened the door, threw his stuff in, and was out before it could close. He ran through the academy and flew across the border of the Seireitei and towards what he believed to be the 13th Squad barracks. Forty-five minutes later he finally found it and unceremoniously burst into the lieutenant's office.

"Dammit midget, what the hell is going on?" Ichigo's anger and annoyance had been building all the while he was running through the labyrinth that was the Seireitei and finally finding an outlet, burst like a dam.

"Baka! Don't just come barging in here! Did you not understand that we weren't supposed to have any contact with you?" Rukia was just as riled up as Ichigo. She'd been having a stressful day and suddenly seeing her angry and annoyed strawberry friend who was yelling at her for God knows what didn't help.

"Then tell me why the hell you guys sent someone to pretend to be the war hero?" Ichigo glared at her and Rukia froze. Send someone to be the…she hadn't heard of anything like that. She stared at him for a minute before backlashing him for being ridiculous. The fighting got louder and louder until the sickly captain wandered in to try and quiet them down. Upon seeing her captain Rukia's demeanor completely changed.

"Ukitake-taichou," she said with a bow, "I'm sorry if we disturbed you. The strawberry here," glancing at Ichigo who scowled back, "seems to believe that – "

"Why did you guys send someone to pretend to be me?" Ichigo asked in irritation. You'd think that after all he'd done for them they'd trust him not to go and give himself away; then again he'd never been subtle.

"I'm sorry?"

"Some guy showed up at the academy today and the instructor said he was the war hero. So what's going on?" Ichigo glowered at the white-haired man but worked to keep his temper in check; Ukitake had always been one of his favorite captains.

"We never ordered anyone to the academy, Ichigo-kun. Not even the faculty was told of your part in the war. The only person who knows about you is the headmaster." Ukitake said with slight confusion. He knew that Ichigo was impulsive and a terrible liar which meant that there must be someone at the academy claiming himself the war hero. The captain sighed. Dealings with the academy lied out of their jurisdiction, for the most part, unless it directly influenced the Gotei Thirteen or vice versa. While he could look into it, there was very little he could do about it unless it became a problem. The captain sighed.

"I will see what I can find out, Ichigo-kun. But," he said and looked up at the teen. "This may be something you have to work out on your own." Great, just great. As if he didn't have enough to worry about already, now he has to figure out what he is going to do about someone pretending to be him – or the war hero at least.

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair before turning and stalking out of the division, all the while grumbling under his breath. Thank god tomorrow was Friday. He was definitely ready for the weekend.


End file.
